Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of authentic assessment on students’ attitude and biology achievement of high school students. Sixty-eight Grade Ten Students from No. (3), Basic Education High School, Kamayut, Yangon Region were chosen as the participants of this study. There were 14 males and 20 females in the experimental group who were instructed through authentic tasks and assessment while 13 males and 21 females in the control group were instructed by inauthentic type of learning. They were selected by purposive sampling. This study adopted an experimental research design. Both quantitative and qualitative data were mainly collected by using twelve instruments through this study. When data were analyzed by using a ttest, the results indicated that there was a significant difference in the biology attitude and achievement of Grade Ten students in the experimental group and those in the control group. Thus, the results can be concluded that students in the experimental group obtained higher achievement scores than those in the control group. This result showed that the females’ achievement in biology excelled than that of the males after experiencing the authentic tasks. Moreover, the result demonstrated that the biology attitude scores obtained from the application of authentic tasks and assessment were higher than those from the inauthentic type of learning and assessment. And, this result confirmed that the females’ attitude towards biology increased more than the males’ after learning with authentic tasks and being assessed authentically. The qualitative data also showed that authentic instruction and assessment affects students’ attitude and biology achievement. Therefore, the present study revealed the influence of authentic assessment on students’ attitude and biology achievement of high school students.